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The Intent and Purpose of Leadership
There are many ways in which people have defined leadership across time and age. I have been privileged to come across a few of those definitions. Amazingly, all the ones I have come across in my study about leadership are insanely good. However, the definition that resonates with me the most was the one given by John Maxwell, who defines leadership as “Influence, nothing more, nothing less!” Maxwell also says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership!” I couldn’t agree less with him because, whichever way you look at leadership, it is simply about influencing, inspiring, and motivating people to do things they would not think of doing on their own. Leadership is taking people from a state of inactivity to a place of extraordinary accomplishment. When you can genuinely mobilize people to get things done without force or coercion, you become enlisted in this type of ingenious leadership. But when you fail as a leader to inspire people to get things done, it reveals a deep flaw in your leadership ability.
There have been many questions about those who aspire to become leaders. The problem is not always with leadership aspiration. Some people have thought it is wrong to aspire to become a leader. No! There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a leader. What you should be concerned about is why you want to become a leader. This is a question that reveals your leadership motive, intent, and purpose. Your motive is very important if you hope to become a leader that society would be proud of and to celebrate.
Personal Growth Blueprint
When it comes to doing anything of high significance in life. The type of mindset you adopt is very critical to the outcome you get. Your mindset is the way your brain is structured and wired to perform in certain ways or accomplish specific tasks unabated. The high point of the accomplishment is following predetermined neuropathways to form a neuro-connection that will lead to a definite outcome.The principle that holds for everything in the functionality of the brain is the same that holds for your personal growth. Brain functions have their own distinct pathways! So, is also the pathway you create for your personal growth. In that sense, personal growth does not just happen because you wish it would happen. No! Personal growth strategy follows a predetermined pathway called mindset, which, once set in motion, is bound to deliver the expected result in its preset order.
The Facade of Virtue
In today's society, it's not uncommon to encounter individuals who present themselves as paragons of virtue, justice, and equity. However, beneath the surface, their actions and behaviors often reveal a different story.The consequences of hypocrisy, eye-service, and pretense can be far-reaching and damaging. Anyone who engages in these behaviors risks losing the trust and respect of others, which in turn damages their reputation and compromises their integrity. Moreover, these behaviors can also lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and anxiety, which can negatively impact mental and emotional well-being.
Finding the Courage to Lead
No matter what anybody tells you, it takes courage to lead. Different people want to lead for different reasons. Whatever it is that is propelling your desire for a stake in leadership cannot be effectively achieved without a measure of some dose of courage.Courage is an amplifier! It magnifies your actions more than what you are capable of doing ordinarily. When you have it, you will overcome obstacles. When you don’t have it, life will be drudgery. Courage helps you to act with swiftness, while you unleash terror against every opposing force that is out to trap you. To state it even more clearly, courage in itself is not the absence of fear as some people conceive it, but acting with audacity even in the presence of your fear.
Empathy: The Core of Modern Leadership
Leadership as an organizational management nuance has been debated among leadership experts as an art or a science. Leadership as an art is built on relationships and excellent communication skills that are inherent in a leader. It is the ability to apply leadership principles in a flexible, intuitive, and creative manner that reflects your make-up as an individual. Leadership as a science is based on the fact that there are methodologies, systemic approaches, processes, and models to follow for leadership performance. Regardless of the side of the divide that you belong to, it is important to know that leadership is a combination of both science and art. You cannot have the science of it without its artistic approach. That is why leading with empathy demonstrates the overlap that exists between the science of leadership and its art.Sometimes, people just need to be heard, not requiring their problem to be fixed. Accommodating their feelings and being present with them is often more powerful than giving them advice on how to fix their problems. Being with people is more important than working for people. Working for people is often too transactional, creating a parallel of a superhero and a victim, while being with them is the offering of our presence to them in their most difficult time.
The Desirability of Friendship
Friendship is a sacred commitment to trust and care for someone you hold in high esteem, whom you are not really expecting any reward from in return for the gift of your friendship. But here is the twist: when you initiate such a friendship, don’t seek people’s approval to be relevant or make life comprehensible to you. If you do so, you will live all your life in deep regret. Caroline Myss observes that “When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful.” But whenever you seek or need the approval of others to remain in a friendship, you are in the wrong friendship. At this point, people’s goal will be to toy with your emotions and leave you at their mercy for you to survive.The key to nurturing an enduring friendship is mutual care — consistently showing up for one another with empathy, commitment, trust, and respect. This means active listening, honest communication, and supporting each other through the highs and lows of life. It also involves shared experience of memorable events and forgiveness for mutual imperfections in order to strengthen the bond of friendship over time.
The Virtue of Work and the Making of a Fully-grown Person
The virtue of work validates the idea that engaging in work is ethically responsible for building good character and dignity, which are essential building blocks for economic progress and stability in life. In most world cultures, work is seen as a way of achieving personal growth and success.There is no other virtue that defines the quality and the beauty of our personhood as much as the concept of work and our attitude toward it.
Redeeming Love – A Conversation with Francine Rivers
I am an avid reader. When I was growing up, books were my solitude, and I devoured every…
Lekki Shooting Massacre: A Lamentation of Human Suffering through Police Brutality
Human suffering is akin to Africa. There is nowhere else, in our modern world today where economic and political suffering is more pronounced than in Africa. The level of man-initiated pain and catastrophic suffering inflicted on the masses by the political elites is on an unimaginable scale.
October 2024 marks the fourth anniversary of the protest against police brutality directed towards Nigerian youths. No doubt, the day remains one of the most horrific scenes I have ever witnessed in my whole lifetime. It was bothersome for me to see the Nigerian government turn a simple protest into a mayhem of bloodshed in what we now know as the Lekki shooting massacre. The dastardly act was perpetrated by the Nigerian government, through a military special operation on innocent Nigerian youths.
A Critique of Oyedepo’s Approach to Solving the Problem of Vocation, Work, and Faith in the African Context
This work critiques David Oyedepo’s charismatic approach to solving the problems of vocation, work, and faith in the African context. It is not in any way to undermine the great work and sacrifice that Oyedepo has made over the years in contributing to the progress of Africa as a whole. Since the inception of Oyedepo’s public ministry in 1981, his ministry's input has produced remarkable achievements that are truly commendable. Still, there is a need to upend other theological shortfalls undermining his bogus contribution to the body of Christ.